MONDAY MEDICAL UPDATE

It’s getting to the point where Lindy Ruff should open his daily media briefings wearing a lab coat and carrying a clipboard. The injury bug continues to ravage the Sabres lineup, with Paul Gaustad and Jochen Hecht being the latest casualties during Saturday’s 3-2 win in Nashville.

“You’d almost say that it becomes humorous, but it’s something that obviously we don’t take lightly,” said Ruff. “You go through some of the injuries, and some of them have been in really tough incidents for us. From Gerbe – he’ll be back – but that was a tough incident to lose him. Even the Myers play was tough. A guy falling on Brad Boyes, (Tyler) Ennis going into a post. We’ve had some incidents that really haven’t happened to us before. I think once we get by that and get healthy, we’ll be okay.”

Without further delay, here is your daily Sabres medical update:

Gaustad: Suffered an upper body injury in the scrum following the Jordin Tootoo hit on Ryan Miller. He did not skate today, and a timetable for his return is unknown at this time.

Hecht: Day-to-day with an upper body injury sustained on the last shift of Saturday’s game. Ruff said it’s not related to the concussion that caused Hecht to miss the first 20 games, and he has a shot to play on Wednesday.

Cody McCormick: Hasn’t played since November 14 at Montreal. He’ll undergo post-concussion testing today, and is expected to get the green light to return for Wednesday's game against Philadelphia.

Jordan Leopold : Missed the last two games with upper body. He skated today but is not expected to return Wednesday.

Ruff has seen enough of Tyler Ennis not shooting the puck, and it took a play in the second period on Saturday to send him over the edge. When Nashville goaltender Anders Lindback came all the way out to the blueline to play a loose puck, Ennis grabbed it and held on instead of advancing the puck towards the net.

Ruff wasn’t happy with the play and said as much to the young winger in between periods.

“I actually talked to him. I brought him in and said, ‘You’ve gotta start shooting. No more of the fiddling around with it and thinking about what you’re gonna do … you’re gonna go in and you’re gonna shoot.’ I broke it down this way: ‘You stickhandled 10 times when the goalie was out.’ From when he pulled up, he handled the puck over 10 times. By the time he handled it the last time, there were three guys playing goal. Just little areas like that, that’s not being on top of your game. That’s not playing the game quick enough.”

Ennis came into the game scoreless in eight games, but finally got off the schneid when he scored the game winner late in the third. Ruff has no doubt that his words were still echoing in Ennis’ mind.

“I think he made a decision in the third period that was aided, that he’s shooting the puck from now on. And he got rewarded. It’s that simple. We’ve gotta play the game quicker.”